Austin and I were reading scriptures together this week and a certain verse stuck out to me: "Wo ye islands of the sea..." Wo is right! That's totally us!
I figured out the trick to becoming local. In fact, I'm on my way there. All you have to do is spend a few hours in the sun to become uber black and then not shave. Ever. You could go as far as to knock out a couple teeth too, but I'll avoid that at all costs.
Eden and I have spent a lot of time outdoors between walking to church, walking to the grocery store, doing laundry, and out Friday outings at the pool. There is a mommy group that gets together each week at a pool. We tend to spend all day there since we have to travel to get there. That has resulted in me transforming into a reptile. I'm now in the shedding my skin phase. Eden has surpassed Austin in how tan she is, but I try really hard not to let her get sun burnt. So far we have been pretty successful.
Oy! This child of mine is getting big! I look at her and think she must be almost twice the size as when she was born. I know for a fact she weighs more than twice that. She's a smart girl: almost sitting up by herself and loving food. She knows where her mouth is and figured out how to use a straw. Her hair is now long enough for me to put it in a little side pony tail, the latest fashion for keeping her hair out of her eyes. Oh, and did I tell you that she is a talkative little thing?
We had an interesting experience yesterday. I keep hearing people talk about the Kittitians as being harsh and bossy, rude, and unpleasant. Quite honestly, we have had just the opposite experience in our interactions with them. For the first time, I could see what people meant. I met a farmer that farms in a ditch/gully by campus. He came to sell us produce that he had grown. At the same time that he got to our house, our caretaker also arrived. It came out that he sold us 3 frozen tomatoes, 1/2 onion, and a cut open yam. In my defense, I didn't want to offend him and assumed this was common place. Our caretaker saw what he was doing and ran him out of there like a dog chasing a cat. He ran off cussing and she spent the next hour educating us on how to not get taken advantage of, telling us that if she ever found out that we bought any more frozen tomatoes she would have to beat us up. Lesson learned. So... if anyone has any ideas for frozen tomatoes besides pasta sauce, I'm all ears. We were sold a soursap fruit, which is quite delicious and an amuzing thing. It looks like a puffer fish and is white on the inside with black seeds interspersed throughout the fleshy fruit. If I can bring some back, I will. It tastes like candy. We also got green bananas, which are in fact eaten green, but will turn yellow if picked at the right time. Green bananas, I'm learning, are a staple here. They surprisingly taste like potatoes in their green state. Usually, you mash them and eat them with salt. You can also fry them and turn them into banana chips, but you'd think you were eating Lays.
If I haven't mentioned it yet, the locals here like to tell you how to raise your kids. I witnessed more of that attitude and the typical Kittitian attitudes in church today. During the RS lesson, one sister explained how she was proud of her daughter for confessing that she lied to her teacher. Another sister went on to say that it was good that she knew that she lied, but that the mom should then have taught her to repent. As you can imagine, the mom took offense, rolled her eyes, and said, "she's only 7!" I have my own thoughts on this, but the two continued to bicker for a while afterwards. On the other hand, testimony meting was great. There was a phenomenal spirit evident because people bore such strong, straight to the point testimonies- something that has been lost in stories and "gratimonies"in Utah.
Austin's first block tests are tomorrow. He feels much better and more confident thanks to everyone's prayers. He is now in a good grove of studying and seems to be managing very well. Med school definitely isn't easy, but it's been awesome to see how quickly Austin has been able to grasp the immense load of information. He already is starting to sound like a real doctor. It's also really funny watching him study because he will randomly spazz out. At first, I thought it was a muscle twitching, then I realized he was practicing his muscle actions and whatever he was studying.
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